Offline maps SDK for Android and iOS [closed]

Question

I would like to use offline map functionality for my application. Could somebody recommend to any useful map SDK?

I found these: Skobbler, Bing Maps, and TomTom. But in not sure which one is better. I need a custom POI, routes highligting, and bubless with some information.

Is possible to use google maps, with some pre-downloaded maps for offline use?

Thanks for any advice.

Krissy

Answer 1

With the GoogleMap API on Android and the MapKit SDK on iOS you can implement custom tile providers. This means you can choose the map tiles that your polylines and markers are overlaid on. The beauty of this is you still get the full functionality of the built in mapping APIs but with the added ability to implement offline maps.

You have a few options with a mapping provider like OpenStreetMaps (which is used by many major companies).

• You could download the entire data set and bundle it with your application so the tiles are already downloaded when the user downloads your app. This will greatly increase the size of your application.
• Or you implement some offline tile caching. This means that to access the tiles offline the user would have to have seen that part of the map online at some point. You would need to handle the caching of the tiles.
• You download the tiles for just the area you need them eg. you ask the user if they wish to download the entire data set for the UK. This would reduce the size of the application whilst making the entire UK available offline.

These are just some ideas. Hope it helps.

Lorenelorens

How do you use the cached tiles to show them on the map later? – Oshea

It has been a while but the TileProvider class is the one you want to look into. – Lorenelorens